Home
by 1221bookworm
Summary: A Kaider one shot for the 2017 TLC ShipWeeks. Takes place when Cinder has given up her Lunar Crown and is making a Home for herself in the Palace.


Here's my first entry for TLC ShipWeeks 2017. If I'm lucky, I'll be participating in all the prompts!

This one takes place sometime in the future when everyone on both planets is settled and Kai and Cinder finally have a little time to themselves.

Enjoy!

Home – Kaider

Cinder looked around her belongings spread out on the bed. It wasn't a lot. A few outfits, and a handful of mementos. All of her tools were in a workbench that was still waiting in the Room ampien for her to decide where she would put them. She looked around at the opulent bedroom – Iko would surely screech is Cinder moved it here, but Cinder hadn't been in the palace long enough to know any other rooms. Except the ballroom, of course. And some of the state meeting rooms. And Kai's office. But none of them appropriate places for a workbench.

Sighing, Cinder moved her clothes into a closet that was probably bigger than Adri's old apartment. It felt weird to have so much space to herself. Almost unnatural. She should be used to it, her rooms in the Lunar palace had similar proportions; however, she had always known they would be temporary. A smile tugged her lips as she realized these particular rooms would also be temporary – she would be moving into the royal suite with Kai … eventually. The political maneuverings around their wedding were spectacularly complicated, and made even the smallest decisions drag on for days.

The palace would still be her permanent home though, and that meant she had to find a place for her workbench. She didn't want to leave it on the Rampion for too long, Thorne might wreck it with his wild steering and even worse landing habits.

The door to the attached sitting room was open, so Cinder heard the quiet knock that preceded Kai's entrance. She smiled and waved so that he could see she was in the bedroom. Kai moved to lean on the doorframe, and Cinder internally snickered at his propriety.

"I hope you found everything to your liking?" He was dressed formally, like he had just come from one of his meetings.

"Oh yes, I love having more closet space then clothes." Cinder didn't worry that Kai would judge her on her lack of wardrobe. She had left most of her new clothes to the Lunar nobility, opting to create a wardrobe of Earthen clothes.

"Hm, I'm sure I could find someone to help you fix that." There was a mischievous look in Kai's eye that made Cinder immediately drop the subject.

"What I really need is a place for my workbench," Cinder paced to the closet experimentally. "This is big enough, I could recreate my whole work booth in here."

"I'm sure we could find something better." Kai had an almost nervous look that was so fleeting, Cinder thought she must have imagined it.

Cinder shrugged. "I'm sure it will find a home. As long as I can get it off the Rampion before Thorne leaves."

"Come on, I had an idea for someplace. I'll show you."

Confused, Cinder followed him to a small door in the corner of her room. She had imagined it opened down to the servants areas or kitchens. She wondered why Kai was heading in that direction – unless he was planning on a snack on the way!

The hall didn't have any doors off that Cinder would have imagined in a servant's passageway. How would they get to other parts of the palace? Eventually, there were stairs, and even when the floor was flat, Cinder could tell they were slanting down.

At the end of the hall was a door with a touch pad, and Kai motioned for her to use her own fingerprints to activate it. Cinder was surprised anything in the palace had been programmed to grant her access, and suspected Cress must have had a hand in whatever it was that Kai was planning.

Inside was a mechanic's paradise. Cinder gasped in surprise to find her own workbench already inside, as well as more benches, shelves, and supplies tucked into all the corners. Sitting in the middle of her workbench was a cracked portscreen, with a note next to it detailing why it wasn't working.

Cinder turned her surprised face to Kai, who started grinning like an idiot. "I knew you'd need a private space where no one could find you. It's part of an old escape tunnel, but the safe house it went to was destroyed years ago. So it's just been sitting here collecting dust. It hooks right up to your rooms so you can come down here whenever you want. And I've instructed the palace mechanics to always make sure there's work down here. I had them help collect the supplies; I didn't know what you would need." Kai added sheepishly at the end. "I figured if you're tools had a home, it would make the palace a little more like home for you, too."

Cinder threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. Even without this wonderful room to herself, she knew she had found her home. Right here with Kai.

The End.


End file.
